The most notable item on the economic calendar today is Janet Yellen’s appearance before lawmakers, expected in a couple of minutes.

The Fed chairwoman’s task in two days of testimony to Congress will be to keep the market focused on the fact that rates will likely remain low for some time to come without appearing to badmouth the economy, says MarketWatch’s Greg Robb in a blog post.

The U.S. economy will end the year in better shape than 2013 despite the slow start to the first quarter, she said in the remarks.

“With the harsh winter behind us, many recent indicators suggest that a rebound in spending and production is already under way, putting the overall economy on track for solid growth in the current quarter,” Yellen said.

On financial stability, Yellen said there is some evidence of “reach for yield behavior” in the corporate bond market, but said duration and credit risks to large banks and life insurers appear modest. More generally, asset values remain within norms, she said.

This all comes from a short story by MarketWatch’s Greg Robb. Get it in full here.

“The beatings will continue until morale improves” — that appears to be the market’s message to Twitter, which was last down 4% to a new all-time low, adding to yesterday’s drubbing.

There’s some debate on Wikipedia on the origins of that phrase, but there’s no question that Twitter is really under pressure.

Shares in the social-media company have fallen 52% in the year to date, and they’re closing in on the IPO price of $26. Twitter never traded at the price as it opened above $40 in its NYSE debut back in November.

While the U.S. stock market has been resilient in the face of violent conflict in Ukraine, investors fled Russian stocks in droves in the past few months. News that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is ready to talk over the crisis in Ukraine was welcomed by global markets.

Markets are dipping in an out of negative territory in a choppy trade. The Nasdaq Composite
/quotes/zigman/12633936/realtimeCOMP is hit hard again today, down more than 1%. It finished 1.4% lower yesterday.

King Digital Entertainment PLC lessened reliance on its “Candy Crush Saga” hit game in the first quarter, but failed to reassure investors of the strength of its coming portfolio, as the company’s quarterly revenue inched higher and profit fell 20% from the previous quarter.

Shares in King slumped 13% and they have fallen sharply since the debut in March.

Tesla Motors Inc. Keurig Green Mountain Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc. are among the companies whose shares likely to see active trading in the after-hours session Wednesday evening, with the companies on tap to report quarterly earnings after the bell.

Telsa shares are down 3.7% and Keurig is down 4%, 21st Century Fox is down 1.2%.

If you’ve been following the markets, you may know how tough it’s been to be a stock picker for the last several years. But that doesn’t mean that some companies have been left behind undeservingly over the course of the bull run.

Philip van Doorn tracks down underperforming stocks that have boosted revenue for five years in a row and takes a deeper dive on five of them.

Here’s a chart illustrating how the pain from the Whole Foods selloff has spread to other natural grocers, with Sprouts Farmers Market, Fresh Market all sporting double-digit percentage losses, while Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage remains down around 5%.

Divergence was the watchword. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each saw their biggest one-day percentage gains in three weeks. The Nasdaq fell for a second day as tech stocks came under renewed selling pressure.

S&P 500 — up 10.49, or 0.6%, to 1,878.22, leaving it 0.7% off of its record high of 1,890.90 from April 2.

DJIA — up 118.17, or 0.7%, at 16, 519.19. The blue chips stand 0.4% off the record high of 16,580.84 notched on April 30.

Nasdaq — down 13.09, or 0.3%, at 4,067.67, ending at its lowest level in three weeks.

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